Olivine Lighthouse: Light Into My Heart
by Ark9
Summary: Ash, Misty, and Brock are on their way to Olivine City, when they have yet another disagreement over which way to go. AAML. My first completed work. Revised December 2007


Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. Nintendo, Creatures Inc., WB for Kids, and Game Freak do but I do not.

Author's Note: "talking" -thoughts- Edited December 2007 for grammatical errors and quality.

Ages:

Ash—13

Misty—14

Brock—15

Olivine Lighthouse: Light into My Heart

By Ark9

As the scene begins, Ash, Misty, and Brock have once again managed to get themselves lost in the forest on their way to Olivine City.

"I told you that that we'd get lost, but no! No one will let me lead!" Misty whined as they came to another unidentifiable crossroads. A set of three paths loomed in front of them. "So which way is it?"

"I think it's that way!" Ash and Brock shouted, pointing in opposite branches.

"Figures," Misty sighed. "Which way do you want to go, Togepi?" she asked the egg pokémon that she held in her arms.

"Togi!" it trilled and wriggled out of her grip. Soon it was skipping merrily down the middle path.

"Oh, no! Togepi!" she yelled, and chased after it.

"Misty!" Ash called. "Well, if she wants to take that road, then I'm going to take the road that I want to take." He set his chin and dashed down the left path with Pikachu hot on his trail.

"What?!" Brock shouted in surprise after Ash's disappearing form. "Oh, well. It's not my fault when they get lost out here for days," he mumbled to himself, and then shouted in futility, "Meet you in Olivine City!"

Convinced that he was still right, Brock followed along the right path until he came to another split in the path caused by a huge boulder. After glancing at the map, he decided to go right again, hoping that the path would straighten soon.

Unfortunately, his path was soon enveloped in a denser scrub that bit at his legs and slowed down his progress. The slower pace allowed the wild pokémon to catch up and attack, as well as scare Brock for what creatures or people might be hiding there.

"Hello?" he called cautiously.

"MILLLLL!" a miltank shouted as it attempted to spin over Brock, who jumped onto a tree branch.

"Geodude, I choose you!" Brock yelled, throwing down Geodude's pokéball.

Soon the red flash erupted from his pokéball and it returned to Brock's hand. The red light slowly materialized into the boulder-like form of Geodude, which rolled into itself as it used its harden attack.

"Geooo," it growled, the light glistening off of its tough hide.

"Tank!" Miltank cried. It spun into Geodude, catching it off-guard. With a quick turn, Miltank rolled back into the patch of grass and away from the woods, leaving Geodude to careen into the nearby trees.

"Dude…" Geodude panted. It lay on the ground after falling from a tree.

"Miltank!" Miltank said triumphantly.

"All right, that's okay, Geodude. Onix, I choose you!" Brock yelled and switched his pokémon.

"Oooooonnnnn!" Onix challenged, emerging from its pokéball.

Once again Miltank used its rollout in an attempt to faint Onix. This time, however, Miltank found out that, even with some extra momentum, using rollout on Onix was as pointless as using rollout on the rock wall nearby. Onix further took advantage of the rock pile that it was by using its rock throw.

When Onix moved again, Brock saw that Miltank had fainted.

-It's in pretty bad condition. I better get it to a pokémon center fast!- Brock thought, and decided to catch it in his pokéball. It wiggled once, twice, and then with a ping the red light on top turned white to show that the pokémon had surrendered.

Brock was concentrating so hard on the miltank that his excitement for catching it did not even register. He jumped on Onix and directed it down the path. The path twisted around to the left and down a step-like hill. Onix raced around the next corner to the right as the grass began to thin, and then with a shout of "slow down!" Brock managed to take control as he clung to his pokémon's side. From the time Brock and his pokémon entered the city, they made it around a sharp left turn and into the pokémon center in five seconds flat.

"What is your problem?" the Nurse Joy scowled as Brock burst through the pokémon center doors.

Brock's reaction was inevitable. "Nothing's the matter now that you're around…" he cooed with a goofy look on his face.

"Are you sure I can't look at your Onix? It looks tired," Nurse Joy suggested uneasily.

"Sure. Oh, and this miltank is in pretty bad shape, too." Brock handed her both of their pokéballs after recalling Onix.

"Thank you!"

"…and while you're at it, could you look at me too? I think that I—" Brock stopped as he realized that she had already left to look at his pokémon. He sat in the pokémon center lobby to wait. -Wait for what? Wait for Misty and Ash to eventually realize that they had taken the wrong paths and wander here? That was assuming that they weren't being so stubborn that they wouldn't take a different path. Well, at least I could wait for… her. Nurse Joy, the woman of my dreams…to come out with her pretty smile to tell me that my pokémon are okay…-

Meanwhile, Ash was stumbling down the path that he had chosen, with Pikachu scrambling under his feet. The path he had chosen was rough. Soon he came to more solid ground and ran down it until his legs ached from running so far. His stomach growled. Suddenly all that he could think about was finding food.

He watched the junctions as he passed them – straight, then right – scrub on the right and a – building! A building was to the right! He ran right into it without looking for a sign to tell what it was. It turned out that this travel station was closed. It was Thursday, bug catching day. Ash wasn't allowed through until afterwards the people who entered the Bug Catching Competition finished, so he and Pikachu got something to eat form a refreshment station and then decided to try in the hunt, too.

Pikachu raced ahead into the grass. "Pika!" it cried, and sent a paralyzing thunderwave through its first opponent, a caterpie.

"Pokéball go!" Ash shouted and then hit the caterpie with the pokéball. It wriggled a few times and then stayed. "All right! I caught a caterpie!" Ash hollered, dancing in circles with Pikachu.

"Caterpies are pathetic. I don't even waste my time with them." A boy soon came from behind a tree. "Yanma are the real prize here. They are so rare that people only catch them three times a year."

"Whoa," Ash said, with a dazed look on his face.

"See ya 'round loser!"

"I'll show you!" Ash growled.

"Pika pi," Pikachu coaxed, tugging at Ash's pant leg in order to hold him back.

Ash looked down at Pikachu and then decided to give it up. "You ready to find a yanma, Pikachu?" he asked with new determination.

"Pikachu!" it smiled happily.

"Now how are we supposed to find them?" Ash asked and then sat down on a log to think. Pikachu plopped down beside him.

"Pika!" it yelled and then jumped up and grabbed Ash's pokédex out of his pocket. "Pika pikachu," it commanded the device. Suddenly the request rang a match.

"Yanma, the dragonfly pokémon…"

"Pi!" Pikachu shouted joyously and hit another button.

Suddenly, the pokédex started pouring out a yellow powder. Pikachu sniffed it, and then ran away hurriedly.

"Pikachu!" Ash called and picked up his pokédex before chasing after it. Soon Ash had to crawl to get through the thick scrub, but the crawling was all worth it when he reached the middle of the thicket. There, skipping across the pond, was a whole dazzle of yanma.

"All right!" Ash whispered to Pikachu.

"Pika," it said and then crawled out of the bushes to try to talk to one of them. As soon as Pikachu was out in the open, however, another yanma buzzed. Then they all narrowed their eyes. Pikachu quickly scanned the group and picked out their leader for a respectful thundershock. The others turned to Pikachu, stunned. Their leader flew up a little, and then decided to negotiate, anyway.

"Pikachu pika."

"Yung, ynnnn!"

"_Pi_kachu!"

"Yaaunnnnn!"

The yanma leader flew next to Pikachu and looked at Ash, who had managed to keep quiet in the bushes. Pikachu and the yanma leader squared off, but Pikachu had the obvious advantage over the aerial pokémon, and eventually it was too tired to fight back.

Ash threw the pokéball immediately. After a few quick shakes, the ball was still. Ash's eyes welled up with tears for a moment and then cleared as the elation set in his mind.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu reminded him and then began to run back to the travel station. They ran the whole way, even though they were already pretty worn out from finding the yanma. When they reached the building again, everyone else had already arrived.

"Now that everyone is back, let out the pokémon that you have caught!" the guard announced and then stepped back to give everyone some room.

Everyone threw their pokéballs and soon the room was full of bug pokémon. Lots of caterpies, weedles, and venonats, climbed along the walls. Beedrills, butterfrees, and venomoths took to the air, as well as Ash's yanma.

"Good. It looks like everyone caught something. Now, choose your best pokémon that you caught, and you can keep it. The other pokémon should be let out outside."

The motion to the door resulted in a momentary chaos while people went outside to release their pokémon. Afterwards, however, the remaining pokémon had more space to move and show off to each other.

"Sorry, Caterpie," Ash apologized and pointed from the doorway. "You are free. Go on outside."

"Reeeee!" it squealed happily and slithered out of the door.

"Now, let's see what we've got left." The guard walked around the room to see everyone's prized catch in the order of return to the station. When he saw the yanma, he almost fainted. "It's not the right time of year," he exclaimed. "They don't come out until later. How did you find one? Oh, that's not important." The flustered guard finally managed to get control of himself. "What's your name?"

"Ash Ketchum, from the town of Pallet."

"The pokémon have all been seen," the guard announced. "Ash is the winner!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu cheered.

"Yippee!" Ash screamed.

"Congratulations, Ash!" the guard said.

Soon everyone cleared out, the bug catchers grumbling to each other about how travelers could never be trusted. Ash decided to keep moving so that he would get to Olivine City faster, but he could not see where he was going anymore. Yanma led them along the trees until they were beside a body of water that they almost walked into in the dark. Ash let Yanma fly around the forest wherever it wanted while he got ready to go to sleep.

Pikachu lie asleep in its miniature sleeping bag close by. Ash watched the fire die down, and then lied down for sleep himself.

Back with Misty, she had followed the middle path, which turned out to be more of a small trail than anything. Eventually, it completely disappeared, leaving her hugging Togepi close and frantically trying to find the way again.

Eventually, she had Staryu use rapid spin to cut the trees around her, walking in the direction that she thought was approximately the way to Olivine City. She didn't want the boys to know that she was wrong, and it would have been just as hard to find the trail behind her, anyway.

Soon she realized that it was almost dark and she was still lost in the trees. Feeling scared and annoyed at herself for leaving without asking if they were going to follow, she dragged her feet along the ground, thinking about how stubborn they all had been.

Suddenly, out of the sky came a pokémon about a foot long, and it perched itself in a nearby tree to look for food. When it saw her red hair, it flew towards her curiously. It was not a bird. Unfortunately, Misty was terrified of bugs and having the one thing that scares you fly at you in the dark on a hard day was just too much.

She screamed and ran harder, running until she was so out of breath that she could not run anymore. Then she collapsed. -I'm dead. I'm dead for sure,- she thought. Instead of attacking, however, the bug chirped softly and beckoned her to follow. Misty nervously walked behind it until she was face to face with no one other than Ash.

"Your screaming always gives you away," he stated smugly.

"Well, you would be scared, too," she said. Then she thought about when they had been in the ghost tower in Lavender Town. He had gone in alone, then. She thought that he had almost died because of that, too.

"Maybe, maybe not," he replied.

"Where is that…_thing?"_ Misty's fear was starting to get the better of her. She had not seen the bug pokémon again since she noticed Ash.

Ash laughed. "You mean Yanma?"

"Yeah, whatever it is," Misty agreed grudgingly.

"He's mine." Ash beamed.

"Just keep it away from me!"

"Sure," he promised, still with the amused smirk on his face. They walked back through a few trees to his campsite and Misty set up her sleeping bag by Ash's, saying something about that she wasn't going to let him out of her sight until she got her bike. He just sighed and went along with it anyway. Yanma would not stay out forever.

Ash lied down in his bag once again and looked up at the stars, remembering when he and Richie had done the same thing, trying to see what pokémon the stars looked like when they were connected.

Pikachu and Togepi were fast asleep in their own little bags, side-by-side. He thought of them and tried to see if any of the stars could look like a Pikachu or a Togepi when they were connected. Eventually, he fell asleep.

Misty, however, didn't fall asleep so easily. She tried to figure out what Ash thought was so funny in the sky but decided not to ask since he probably thought that she was already asleep.

After a while, he did stop and seemed to quiet down. She gathered enough courage to get up and look to see if he was awake, which he was not. She smiled and then moved her sleeping bag so that it was right next to his. She snuggled into her sleeping bag and tried to pretend that she was minding her own business, but watched him sleep for a while as her mind wandered. -I just wish that he would wake up and like me too. But it can't be that way, can it?- She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Ash brushed his cheek as if to keep his scraggly hair out of his eyes, but otherwise slept on obliviously. Misty curled up in her sleeping bag again, glad it was a warm night and she did not have to worry alone after all.

Back with Brock, he woke up and rubbed his eyes. Then he stretched looking around himself. It was 7:00am. Suddenly Nurse Joy came from around the corner.

"Your pokémon are ready," Nurse Joy said with her usual cheerfulness.

"Great!" Brock said, and almost tried to ask her out _again_ but managed to remember that he had already tried this one. He took the pokéballs from her and let them both out.

"Grraaaahhhhh!" Onix growled loudly.

"Mil tank!" Miltank said in a resistant tone.

"I know that you don't trust me yet, Miltank, but maybe we can be friends?" Brock asked, and held out his hand.

"Mil," it said hesitantly.

"Do you want to see the lighthouse while we're waiting for Ash and Misty?"

"Tank!" it said excitedly and ran out the door.

"Great." Brock followed it and they both went up into the lighthouse.

"Hello?" Brock called as they went inside. "Is anybody here?" They wandered up until they reached the top, where they found an Ampharos with a girl trying to help it.

"Mil mil miltank!" Miltank tried to talk to it.

"Ammm…" it moaned.

"It's very sick!" Jasmine said.

"Is there any way that I can be of assistance?" Brock asked and grabbed her hands.

"Yes!" she shouted and flung him across the room in the process of shaking her hands free. "Let go of me!"

Brock groaned as he slid down the wall on his head. "Miltank, see if some milk will give it some energy." Miltank realized that Brock really did just want to help pokémon at that point, so it went over to Ampharos.

"Miltank!" it smiled and gave Ampharos a bottle of milk. Ampharos drank the milk slowly and then stood up.

"Ros!" it thanked Miltank.

"Wow! Thanks for helping my Ampharos!" Jasmine said.

"No problem. Have you seen my friends? Their names are Ash Ketchum and Misty Waterflower. Ash has black hair, brown eyes, and always has his Pikachu out of its pokéball. Misty has orange hair and blue eyes. Her pokémon stay in their pokéballs except for Togepi, which is just a baby."

"No, I haven't seen them, but you can stay here while you wait for them. Now that you helped my Ampharos, they will be able to see where they are trying to go if they look up in the sky."

"Thanks."

"Mm hmm," she smiled.

Brock decided to sit at the top with Jasmine and watch the forest to see when they would get there, while she kept an eye on Ampharos.

Meanwhile, back at Ash and Misty's campsite by the water, Ash woke up and sat in his sleeping bag. He petted Pikachu on its back until it started to stretch and wake up.

"Hey, Pikachu," Ash said.

"Pikachu!" it said happily. Then it woke Togepi up, who appeared out of its shell and then stood up and waddled over to Misty.

"Toge toge togeprrriiii!" it called out and nudged Misty's shoulder. She blinked open her eyes and looked up at Togepi.

"Hey there, Togepi! Did you sleep well?"

"Toge prrriiii!" it trilled excitedly.

She propped herself up on her shoulders and looked over at Ash. Suddenly she saw Yanma fly up behind him, and she stopped moving, scared stiff.

"Uh, Ash? Look behind you!"

"Where?! What? What is it?!" he shouted and then turned back and forth until he saw Yanma flying around behind him. He laughed, "You're still scared of it? Pikachu, why don't you take Yanma for a walk? Just don't get lost."

"Pikachu!" it agreed, winked, and then called Yanma before scrambling through the bush nearby. Togepi rolled behind him, thinking everything was just a big game.

"For your information, I don't like bugs! They are—"

"I know, I know! I was just kidding. I made it leave, didn't I?" he smiled down at her, waiting to see what her reaction would be.

She frowned, "Yeah, I guess so." Then she smiled, realizing that Ash was only a few inches away, and they hadn't gotten into a real fight, yet.

Ash looked very confused. -First she was frowning, and then she smiled for almost no reason. Why was that? Wait a second, how did she get over here in the first place? I didn't see her move. Did she sleep there?- "Hey, Misty! How did you get over here anyway?"

Sweating nervously, Misty managed to shrug, "I, um, er…" She struggled to think of an excuse to tell him. "…I was just keeping an eye on Togepi!" she said finally, realizing that Togepi and Pikachu had slept on the other side of Ash.

"Oh," Ash said, not really believing her. -It was like the bike excuse,- he knew. -It wasn't true or else she wouldn't struggle to answer. But I do owe her a bike, so I can't prove it anymore than I can prove this. But why does she feel like she has to lie to me?-

Misty could tell that he knew that it wasn't the truth, but she didn't know what to do about it. She couldn't go back on that idea, now, but if Ash only knew why…she would give almost anything for him to like the real reason. She didn't like the tension so she flipped over on her back and picked up her book to read.

Ash got out of his sleeping bag and sat next to Misty so that he was facing her. He waited a while, and then when she didn't do anything, he leaned over her and put his arm on the other side of her to get between her and her book.

"Misty, are you mad at me?" he asked, wondering why she was trying to ignore him.

Misty put down her book, stunned, and looked up at his worried face and then blushed. She let out an embarrassed giggle and thought about why he would think that she was mad at him. Finally, not knowing why, she answered, "No, Ash. Why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know. You just seemed really defensive, and then you were ignoring me so I thought that I had done something to make you mad," he frowned and then looked at her hopefully.

Misty was still wary of her situation but laughed at his response. "I'm sorry, Ash. But I was just trying to read." She waved her book in front of his face and then put it down again.

He actually smiled, but realized that she had gone around her excuse once again. He sighed, trying to think of how he was ever going to get her to tell him.

Misty noticed him sigh. "Is there something wrong, Ash?"

"No. I just wondered why you always feel like you have to lie to me."

"What?!" she asked angrily. "You think that I am lying to you? Why else would I be reading?"

"Not that. It's just when you give an excuse, I can always tell," he then noticed her getting angrier. "Not like it's not true, but it's not the real reason." She went pale after that, quite a contrast to the red she was moments before.

She spoke quietly after that. "Oh," she breathed out and looked down away from Ash. She didn't know what to say now.

Ash hadn't expected this. Misty had completely run out of things to say. He knew now that it was probably something important to her. "Can you tell me? Or do you just want me to leave you alone?" he asked in his serious tone, that was usually reserved for pokémon battles.

Misty looked up at him. She was scared and didn't know what to do at all. If she told him, would he laugh or would he smile? She didn't know and that might have been the only thing keeping her away, but she had to answer his question.

He let his elbow drop and stopped millimeters away from putting his hand on her cheek, at which point he could already feel her heat. He was nervous and he knew that she could tell. "Hey, don't be scared. If you don't want to tell me you don't have to."

Misty smiled, with tears filling in her eyes. "Ash? I don't know how to tell you, but I, well, I…" Suddenly her resolve left her again. She looked away, waiting for him to laugh.

"Hey, I'll tell you what," Ash started, sitting back on his legs. "Tell me tomorrow." He winked, a sign of friendship to ease her discomfort.

But Misty was feeling even more anxious. Did he know? Is that why he winked like that?

"Pikapi!" a cry came announcing the pokémon's soon return.

Ash quickly stood up and ran over to the fire as if to fix it. Misty pulled her book up over her head and pretended to read it, but she couldn't concentrate enough to focus on the words.

"Yunnng!" Yanma flew out of the trees.

"Toge toge togeprriiiiiii!" Togepi waddled and then tripped and rolled to Misty.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu said and then leaped into Ash's arms.

"Hey, Pikachu!" Ash said. "Did you guys have fun?"

"Pikachu!"

"Togeprrri!"

"Yunnng!"

"Good. Yanma, return," Ash commanded approvingly.

Misty got out of her sleeping bag at last and put away her book in her bag. Ash finally finished doing what he was doing with the fire and Pikachu hopping onto his shoulder to rest after its hike.

"So should we walk along the shore, or use our pokémon and surf?"

"Let's surf!" Misty shouted enthusiastically.

Misty let out Staryu and Ash called out Totodile. Misty got on the right side of Staryu to wait. Pikachu grabbed Togepi and hopped on Totodile. Then it took off across the water.

"Totodile, wait!" Ash scolded.

"Totodile!" it argued and it and Pikachu continued to swim away.

"Come here, Ash," Misty called. Ash walked over to Misty and Staryu by the water.

"What?" Ash asked, standing in front of Misty and Staryu.

Misty smirked, "Climb on," she pointed to Staryu. Ash nervously got on the other side of Staryu, not really sure if he trusted Staryu or not. As soon as he got on, Staryu took off.

"Whoa!" he shouted as they sped across the water and caught up with Totodile.

Misty, however, was completely comfortable riding on Staryu and laughed. "Is Staryu that scary, Ash?" she asked and nudged him in the ribs.

Ash blushed, "No…I'm just not used to it 'cause it's not my pokémon."

Misty leaned over and rested her head on Ash's shoulder. "Maybe you'll get used to it," she said. Ash looked at her out of the corner of his eye, stunned. What did this mean?

Suddenly, a strong wave rocked Staryu into a spin to keep upright. Angling her body naturally, Misty gripped Staryu's spike. Ash, on the other hand grabbed her shoulders at the last minute in an attempt to keep his balance. When Staryu righted itself again, Ash pulled away quickly.

"I was just keeping my balance," he muttered gruffly.

"Hey!" Misty laughed. "Don't worry about it." Ash relaxed slightly, but that made Misty nervous again. She wrinkled her nose slightly. "Hey… you know yesterday… I was going to say…" Childishly she thought of saying, "I love you," and then changed her mind once again. "You need the support, don't you! Well, you better stick close, then!"

Ash sputtered slightly at her outburst, and turned away to laugh as silently as he could manage. When he had regained his composure somewhat, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Well, I guess someone did need some support yesterday, but as I recall it was you who was afraid of Yanma at that time. Are you sure that's what you were thinking?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Misty replied quickly.

"Alright, alright," Ash grinned and squeezed her shoulders slightly. "I guess I like that idea well enough."

Misty still could not tell if he knew or was just being friendly. His smile seemed genuine.

Soon Totodile and Staryu get out into the main body of water. Then a blinding light came across the water.

"Are those spotlights, or what?" Ash asked.

"Ash! It's the lighthouse in Olivine City!" Misty answered excitedly.

Staryu and Totodile put on an extra burst of speed and surf off to the shore by the lighthouse. Ash and Misty jumped off Staryu and Pikachu hopped off of Totodile. They walked into the seemingly deserted lighthouse. They reached the top and turned to see a teal-haired girl looking away towards the forest.

"Hello?" Ash asked.

The girl jumped in surprise and turned around. "Oh! You two must be the kids that Brock was looking for!"

"Yeah, do you know where Brock is now?" Misty asked, slightly flustered by being recognized by a stranger to her.

"As a matter of fact, he's in one of the other rooms of this lighthouse because he was waiting for you two. He got here this morning and said that last night he stayed in the pokémon center. He's been worried you know!"

"Sorry," Ash apologized.

"Yeah, we kind of took the scenic route," Misty added with a grimace.

"Alright. You both can stay here, too, if you like," Jasmine offered.

"Thanks!" they chorused. When Jasmine turned to lead, they followed her to find an empty room.

Soon they found a room with two train-style bunk beds. Pikachu and Togepi jumped up on the top of one and immediately fell asleep, sleepy from walking all day on their own instead of being carried by their trainers for such a long trip.

Ash climbed into the bed across from where Pikachu and Togepi were after Misty left. He briefly wondered how girls lived when there wasn't a bathroom around. Misty came out a few minutes later and sat down on the other bed.

The pokémon seemed to be sound asleep. Misty walked over to Ash and sat down beside him. -What should I say?- she wondered. -Is he even awake? What will he expect me to do?- All of these questions and more rushed through Misty's mind at once. As a result, she sat there dumbfounded.

"Are you just going to sit there all day?" Ash asked, sitting up and grinning.

Misty almost laughed at his trick, but then decided not to. She still didn't know what to do…or what he would expect her to do…

"Or I guess it's night now, isn't it?" Ash had a playful smirk on his face.

Misty grinned back and tackled him down into his pillow. "Yeah, it is," she answered. "Not all of us are so dense."

"Hey, I'm not dense!" Ash said in mock-anger. Then he smiled again and laughed. "At least not _that_ dense."

"Are you sure?" Misty sneered.

"Yeah, I'm sure!" Ash said. "Unless, you're dense enough to think that I would say no!" He playfully rolled her off him.

"Hey! Come back here!" she called challengingly.

Ash pulled at the sheet and waved it like a white flag in front of his face. "Oh, I'm so scared," he said sarcastically. Misty lunged at him and he caught her wrists, pinning her against the bed. "What was that you were saying?"

Misty assessed her situation while she negotiated. "Um…let's see. Maybe something about how _Ash_ better get off me before I _suffocate!_"

"Ha, ha. Very funny," Ash said. He let go of her wrists but stayed where he was instead of backing away. He lowered his head slightly and then kept his face right next to hers. "You never give up, do you?" When Misty squirmed defensively, he added, "No, I like that."

"Neither do you," she countered and then sighed and looked away as what he said registered. "Ash, I…" As she struggled to catch her breath, Ash smiled warmly. She looked back. "I never…" Feeling more confident, Ash kissed her forehead gently. "Even when everything is against you, hm?" Misty tried to keep her composure.

"Like you?" he chuckled. "Oh, I'm just teasing. I never thought I'd hear you say that."

Misty came back to her senses. "Never thought--?" she choked. "What do you call what you just did?" As she wound up for a full-blown lecture, the look on Ash's face caught her off guard. So he meant to do that then. How long…? Before she could think another thought, he was moving again. He was so close. Should she kiss him? Was it all in her head? Then the moment was over.

Ash lied down beside Misty as noninvasively as the small space allowed. He rolled over on his side and opened his arms to her invitingly. When she complied, he whispered softly, "Could you feel it?" Misty looked up seriously. "Just now, I wanted to… so badly…"

With a slight squeal, Misty lunged forward. Ash allowed himself to kiss her lips this time. All too soon it was over and everything hit him like a brick. "How are we going to tell Brock in the morning?"

"Eh? Do we have to?" Misty asked wistfully. Her mind was not quite on the question.

"Yeah, but he'll never believe us. Or else he and team rocket will never leave us alone about it."

"Don't think that you can take it?" she mocked.

"Of course I can!" he said.

"Stubborn."

"Hey!"

"But I like it."

He smiled and relaxed. Soon they both fell asleep.


End file.
